In a communication system and communication system development, system vendors and operators, come to the realization of the important role that Long Term Evolution, LTE, technology will play in providing sustainable and quality assured services to residential users. It is also apparent to most vendors and operators that copper access seems to become the predominant access technology to feed the vast majority of such users.
There is currently no solution today that combines LTE radio access with fixed broadband access in an efficient way. The only solutions today are various overlay models, where copper access is treated as one realm, and LTE radio access as another realm, both independent of one another. Yet, it is generally agreed that all devices in future residential systems will be connected wirelessly to residential access points. Increasingly, the industry is also realizing that LTE provides the best technology to support such wireless connectivity to residential systems, not least because of its robustness in handling complex radio environments, with multitude of user equipments in homes competing for wireless links inside each home.
The fifth generation of mobile communication technology, 5G, that is predicted to reach some level of maturity starting around 2020, is widely positioned as a solution that marries various radio access technologies under a common mold, largely determined by the architecture and basic constructs that have emerged from LTE, in particular the flat architecture and the LTE bearer concept. In other words, for the coming two decades, those LTE structures will be with us, as the main vehicles to provide wireless and mobile services to end users.
In light of this, there is no reason to pursue the predominant approach of keeping broadband access such as copper broadband access and LTE radio access separate from one another. On the contrary, they should be highly integrated so as to allow for efficient and effective provisioning and assurance of services to future residential systems.
Consequently, there is a need to integrate wire line broadband access with radio access technologies such as LTE, for example for providing residential indoor wireless access to UEs of a household.